Everyone who preorders Fear My Mortality will get a deleted scene! The scene is one that I love because it shows the characters in a calmer setting before the action ramps up.

Just email a copy of your preorder receipt to everlyfrostpreorder@gmail.com and I’ll email you a link to the PDF document with the deleted scene.

ALSO, in addition to the deleted scene, I have ONE preorder swag pack to give away! This pack is one of the biggest I have and it includes a tote bag, mousepad, 3 postcards (one signed), 4 stickers, and 2 magnets. Open international.

P.S. If you’re a details person like me and want to know how the swag pack giveaway will work, here’s the rundown:

– Preorder Fear My Mortality (before it releases on April 5th, 2016)

– send a copy (in any form) of your preorder receipt to everlyfrostpreorder@gmail.com

– I’ll accept copies up to midnight April 10th, 2016 AEST to give people time

– After April 10th, 2016, I’ll choose the winner using the random sequence generator on random.org to generate a random number. I’ll use that number to count through the entries in the order they were received and the person whose email corresponds to that number will be the winner. 🙂

I’ve read many amazing young adult books this year, but for me there were three that stood out as the best young adult action books of 2015.

Here they are in no particular order (and no spoilers) 🙂

NAMELESS by Jennifer Jenkins

Wow. Just wow. This book gave me the same tingles in my fingertips that I felt when I read The Hunger Games and Divergent for the first time. That’s not because Nameless is dystopian: it’s fantasy fiction set in a world where there are four clans, dominated by the ruthless Ram clan. The main character, Zo, is a Wolf and a Healer who infiltrates the Ram as a spy for the Allied Clans.

This book has everything I want in a young adult book: action, a developing romance, loyalty, danger, compassion in surprising places, and complex characters I fell in love with.

Oh boy. This one. EARTH is the seventh and final book in the Walker Saga. The series follows Abigail Swish, a half-walker, in her quest to locate and unite the seven half-walker girls from across the universe to defeat the deadly Seventine – original powers who are determined to destroy worlds.

This series has a powerful love story, strong heroines who define their own futures (while never taking themselves too seriously – seriously, the humor in these books is perfect), and incredible action scenes. There aren’t too many books that can make me cry, but EARTH did. I’ve followed this series from start to finish and I’ve fallen in love with each and every book over and over.

I was hooked on TRACKED from the very first page and couldn’t put it down even when it turned dark outside. Phoebe Van Zant is a street racer in a futuristic universe where corporations are the ultimate power, who gets caught up in corporate espionage – the kind with effects that ripple out across worlds.

I was blown away by the world-building, imagination, character development, and the strong writing. The car-racing scenes sent my heart into my throat and I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected plot twists. The second book can’t release soon enough.

I am so excited to have on my blog Jenny Martin who is the author of the awesome YA science fiction novel TRACKED (recently released from Dial/Penguin).

Jenny Martin, photo by Amy Seiger

Jenny Martin is a librarian, a book monster, and a certified Beatle-maniac. She lives in Dallas with her husband and son, where she hoards books and regularly blisses out over all kinds of live and recorded rock.

Everly: There is so much to love about TRACKED. For me, the fast pace and action were perfect. What’s your process for writing action scenes?

Jenny: Wow, thank you so much, Everly! True confession: Believe it or not, the action scenes are actually the easiest for me to write. And the most enjoyable! I think a lot of it boils down to voice. In every scene, I’m always trying to tap into that character’s voice. I’m trying to get under the skin and filter everything through that unique perspective. Usually, I’m not even focusing on what’s actually happening, blow by blow. Instead, I’m interpreting the experience of it. I think that’s the key. I’m always chasing that sense of really being there, and trying to conjure what it would be like for the character. And when that character is strapped in, and blasting off at top speeds…it can be pretty fun!

Everly: I fell in love with Phee’s voice right from the start. I’d love to hear about her evolution from an idea into the fearless character that she is.

Jenny: Great question, and one of my favorites! I’ve written about this quite a bit, but Phee’s voice was really strong, from the beginning. I’d gotten the idea for Tracked, after watching Death Race: 2000 with Jason Statham, and a documentary on out of control corporations, and Phee popped into my head soon after, pretty much fully formed. From the get go, on the page, she was impatient and reckless and headstrong. And above all, fearless—a Han Solo girl with smart mouth and a stubborn, loyal heart. Basically, she was everything I’m not! And I think that’s no accident. Phee came to me during a really tough time in my journey. Writing her was almost therapeutic. She was so good for my spirit, and she helped me face a lot of my own fears, and move past them.

Everly: I also really loved the world of TRACKED and how you brought it alive with culturally diverse characters like Cashoman Dradha, Grace Yamada, and Auguste de Chevalier. What part of the TRACKED world did you most enjoy writing about?

Jenny: Thank you! I really enjoyed writing each of these characters, especially Cash. It was also a lot of fun to dream up the histories of these two planets—his and Phee’s. While Cash’s planet is lush and unyielding, corporations from Earth colonized Phee’s world, and I borrowed a little bit of my home state’s history in writing it. I grew up in dusty, windswept Oklahoma, which was settled in a series of wild, claim-staking land runs. And naturally, I made sure that Phee’s planet was settled that way, too…through breakneck races. Then everything fell into place. I knew why rally racing had to be the most popular interplanetary sport. Suddenly, that history became important to Phee and Cash’s story.

Everly: Please tell me there’s going to be a sequel? (Because I kind of want to read it, like, now!) If so, when can we look forward to seeing it on shelves?

Jenny: Hurray! Thanks for asking. So glad you enjoyed! Yes, there is a sequel under contract, and I’m actually finishing up edits on it right now. It will be out next year, and I can’t wait for readers to see what happens next. Phee has been through so much, but oh boy, she has a long road ahead of her. All I can say is…these characters have become so dear to me, and it’s going to be thrilling to see the finish line at last.

Everly: In the spirit of fast and furious, some quick questions:

Red car or black car?

Black car! Just like Phee’s Talon, of course.

Hero or villain?

Hero, all the way. (I’m Jedi and House Gryffindor, through and through.)

As the weather cools down here in Australia, it’s summer overseas. This season I want to fill my bookshelf, both real and virtual, with debut novels that will keep the winter chills at bay and remind that somewhere the warm sun is shining.

I’ve kicked the season off with two amazing 2015 debuts:

TRACKED by Jenny Martin, described as “Star Wars meets Speed Racer, in which a daring, street-racing girl transforms from rebel to revolutionary”. Yep. And it was AWESOME!

IN A WORLD JUST RIGHT by Jen Brooks, which I’m halfway through and loving: A boy who creates alternative worlds gets his worlds mixed up and tries to kiss the real version of the girl he loves, after which his worlds begin to collide.

Currently on my MUST-READ list (not all debuts, but authors I’ve never read before):

LIFER by Beck Nicholas: The Bourne Identity meets Under the Never Sky? I want it. Now!

THE BODY INSTITUTE by Carol Riggs: not releasing until September, but I can’t wait: A girl “Reducer” takes over other girl’s bodies to get them into shape–until her own identity is threatened.

NOBODY’S GODDESS by Amy McNulty: A village of masked men, a magic that compels them to love only one woman, and one girl’s search for freedom and true happiness. Bring on the good chills!

This book. How can I describe it? Beautiful. Agonising. Uplifting. Hopeful and devastating at the same time.

Of Breakable Things by A. Lynden Rolland is one of the few books that actually made me cry. And yet I also found it comforting, like greeting an old friend, the kind you can sit with quietly, without needing to speak to be understood. It’s beautifully written from multiple points of view and has an otherworldly feel about it that completely drew me in and wouldn’t let me go.

I highly recommend this book. In a five star world, I would give it six stars if I could.

I honestly didn’t think I’d ever rank a dystopian novel as highly as The Hunger Games, but this is it.

There. I said it. Legend by Marie Lu is full of action, intrigue, and most of all, two characters I’ve fallen in love with. And set in a possible future that is really not so far away from our present. If dystopian fiction is your thing, this is a must-read. If you’ve never read a dystopian young adult, this is a great place to start, but with a warning–not all dystopians will live up to this one.

(I’m secretly glad I’m late to this series, because now I don’t have to wait to read the other two books in the series: Prodigy and Champion.)